Paul Griffiths speaking voiceFrances-Marie Uitti violoncello
I cannot remember
think of that day
how I wish
without words I
call from the cold
touching
there it was
the bells
some where
without words II
for you
I did look
without words III
my one fear
without words IV
the door
when this is over

Frances-Marie Uitti and Paul Griffiths, together for the first time on disc, both making their ECM debuts as performers. Cellist Uitti is an innovator, creator of many new techniques for her instrument. The great composers of new music have collaborated with her – from Cage to Scelsi, from Carter to Nono, from Xenakis to Kurtág. She is herself a composer as well as an inspired interpreter, and also an improviser of the first rank. Paul Griffiths was the librettist for Elliott Carter’s opera “What Next?”. He is also one of the best-known – and one of the most highly-respected - writers on music, and has a growing reputation as a writer of fiction. His novel “Myself and Marco Polo” won the Commonwealth Writers Prize.
“There is still time” resists categorization, but the recording is special, and these “Scenes for Speaking Voice and Cello” should be heard.